You should review your record keeping whenever you have a major life event. Major life events include: *birth *marriage *divorce *home purchase *house move *down sizing *job change *job loss *change in finances *death
Even if you do not experience a major life event, you should review your record keeping with your family and/or executor at least once a year. Consider tying your review to an annual event. It can be personal such as your *birthday *anniversary or an event on everyone's calendar such as *New Year's Day *Income Tax Filing Day--you will have gathered many of your records! *Back to School
How long to keep tax returns
The key is when the period of limitations for that return runs out. The period of limitations is the timeframe for amendments for credits or refunds or the IRS can assess additional tax. Most individuals need to keep tax returns for 3 years from the time of filing, not the tax year; e.g. returns for the 2006 tax year were filed in 2007 and may be shredded in 2010. There is a special category for filing a claim for a loss from worthless securities where the period of limitations is 7 years. This is the more conservative advice usually cited. Note that there are no limits for non-reporting of income or fraud of any kind.
Information from Internal Revenue Service Publication 552 Recordkeeping for Individuals (rev. December 2008). See page 6 for Table 3. Period of Limitations.
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